Scallop Appetizer (2)

Here's the second scallop appetizer:

 

This is a fairly straight forward dish with grilled sashimi grade scallop, ikura, japanese ginger powder, and dashi gelee.  

Ingredients:

1 sashimi grade scallop

1 pinch of japanese ginger powder (see my Hotate Carpaccio post for directions)

1 teaspoon of ikura (salmon caviar)

1 teaspoon of dashi gelee or bonito & kelp stock gelee (recipe to follow)

1 packet of gelatin powder

Dashi gelee - dashi is bonito & kelp stock.  Bonito in Japan usually refers to skipjack tuna (I've been using bonito forever, but had to look up the definition in wikipedia for the post), which is known as katsuo in Japan.  Bonito can be found in Japanese or Asian super makets, pre-shaved.  It's really hard to find whole katsuo that you shave yourself.  There are different kinds of bonito so use the best that you can afford because it does affect the taste.  The really thin shavings, kind of like wood shavings, have a much lighter taste.  I usually buy the really thick shavings that's imported from Japan; it almost looks like fish jerky.  The thick shavings have a much more abundant taste.  For the kelp, also use the best that you can find.  Really good kelp is dried with white specs (salt from the ocean) and is a large piece.  The cheaper kelp is thin or even in shavings.  To make the dashi, boil 3 cups of water (I never measure so 3 cups is strictly for academic purposes), once the water comes to a full and complete boil, turn off the heat and toss in 1 piece of kelp and 1 handful of bonito.  Close the lid and just let the ingredients soak for 20 minutes.  You can use it immediately, or what I did was let it cool, throw it in the fridge overnight, which will give it a much stronger flavor, and then strain the liquid.  The next day, I boiled the liquid again and let it reduce by about 1/4 to 1/3.  All you'll need is 1 cup of the dashi and 1/4 packet of gelatin powder.  If you're not sure, go by the directions on the gelatin powder and use 1/4 their recommendation.  The instruction on my gelatin said 4 cups of water and 4 packets of gelatin, so I used 1 cup of dashi and 1/4 packet of gelatin.  You want the gelee to hold together but be limp and pliable, you don't want the texture of jello.  Once you've mixed the gelatin in the dashi and dissolved it all, cover and refrigerate.

For the scallop, dry with paper towels until there's no more water, toss in olive oil and place on a hot grill for 1 1/2 minutes each side.  The outside should develop a crust / sear marks and the inside should still be raw.

Place a scallop on a large soup spoon, top with some ikura, sprinkle with japanese giner powder, and scrape a little gelee and fill the empty space in the spoon.  This is meant to be a one bite appetizer.  The combination of fresh sashimi scallop, the saltiness of the salmon caviar bursting in your mouth, the brightness of quality dashi, and the pop of japanese ginger powder all blends very well in this dish.  This is a one bite appetizer that captures all the essence of the ocean.

Scallop Appetizer

I had the misfortune of buying too many scallops for my scallop carpaccio experiment so I ended up having to think up lots of dishes to get rid of my scallop inventory.  All of these dishes are related and made pretty much the same way, though the textures are very different.

First up is the grilled scallop appetizer with ikura topping and parmesan foam.

 

Ingredients:

3 sashimi grade scallops

2 TBS of ikura (salmon fish roe)

1 pinch of crushed black pepper

1 pinch of japanese ginger flower (dried and crushed into powder)

1 pinch of tomato powder (refer to the hotate carpaccio posting for making tomato powder)

1 TBS of extra virgin olive oil (for plate dressing)

1 TBS of olive oil (for tossing the scallops before grilling)

1 teaspoon of parmesan foam for each scallop.  Recipe to follow.

For the parmesan foam: use 1 cup of half & half or if you don't have half & half (like in my case) use 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 of cream.  Bring the liquid to a simmer, don't let it boil violently.  Toss in 2 cloves of peeled and crushed garlic and 3/4 cup of parmesan cheese.  The parmesan cheese is an approximate since it just tossed in block of parmesan until I got the right consistency.  You can tell that I'm not big on measuring things.  You want the mixture to have a nice sauce like consistency, add cheese to thicken, add milk to thin.  Keep the heat low at all times and let the cheese slowly melt, it'll take a little while so be patient.  When you're ready to create foam, just use an immersion blender and blend it until you get some foam at the top.  I'm not doing molecular gastronomy so I'm not adding lecithin and making things complicated.  Simply blend the liquid until you get a little foam, kind of like making the foam milk for cappuccino.  Your foam won't last very long so do it right before you serve the dish.  If you took too long and your foam collapses, it's no big deal, it just becomes a sauce for the scallops.   

Dry the scallops with paper towels until the paper towels does not soak up any water.  This is what gives the scallops their sear marks and the crust.  Toss the scallops in olive oil and throw on a hot grill for about 1 1/2 minutes on each side.  The outside should develop nice sear marks while the inside should still be some what raw.  If you don't have a grill, you can heat up a cast iron skillet or even pan fry the scallops.  

 To dress the plate, drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with tomato powder and japanese ginger powder (see Hotate Carpaccio recipe for directions on making tomato and japanese ginger powder), reserve a little to garnish the top of each scallop.  Sprinkle the plate with crush black pepper.  Place the scallops on the plate, scoop the ikura on the scallops, sprinkle a little tomato powder and japanese ginger powder on the ikura.  To finish, scoop a little parmesan foam on the side of each scallop.

Hotate Carpaccio (Scallop Carpaccio Appetizer)

I had two different versions of this dish at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and I wanted to create my own version.  I had their Langoustine carpaccio as well as their halibut (or some other white fish) carpaccio.  I thought that using sashimi scallops would also be good.

 

Ingredients:

3 sashimi grade scallops

1 japanese edible ginger flower (obviously I'm lacking the technical term here, but any edible flower that can be dried will work)

1 tomato

1 TBS white soy sauce

1 pinch of black pepper

2 TBS olive oil

This is actually quite a simple dish; you really want to let the fresh scallops do all of work and just let the accompanying ingredients accentuate the flavors.  Start by drying out the tomato and ginger flower.  A food dehydrator or a conventional oven at 160 degrees will work.  Cut the tomato and remove the core, dry the pulp and cut the tomato into pedals and lay everything flat on parchment paper or silpat.  Thinly slice the ginger flower and place on parchment paper.  When everything is dried, crush in your fingers or place in grinder and grind into a fine powder. 

Freeze the scallops so you can work with it; you'll need the scallops to be firm in order to cut it into paper thin slices.  What I did was cut the scallops in half, turn it up so it's laying flat, then start slicing it into paper thin slices.  As you slice it, start laying the pieces on the plate like a mosaic.  After you've filled the entire plate, let the scallops settle into room temperature.  Since it was frozen, it'll give off excess water, blot the plate w/ paper towels as you do not want this dish to be watery cover up the sweetness of the scallops.  

You want the scallops to lay in a very thin layer without it overlapping.  There will be some empty spots where the plate is exposed, fill these spots with extra virgin olive oil and white soy sauce.  The goal is to have one evenly thin layer over the plate.  Sprinkle the rest of the plate with tomato powder, ginger flower powder, and cracked black pepper.  When serving the dish, make sure your guests get a little bit of everything in each bite.

Uni Ikura Appetizer

Wanted to experiment with some new dishes... Quick and easy and very tasty. I was originally going to use cones for this dish, but couldn't find the right ingredients so I settled for a flour tortilla instead. I was originally going to use wonton wrappers and shape it into a cone and fry it. Couldn't find wonton wrappers; tried to use Vietnamese clear spring roll wrappers and failed with that as well. If I'm going to re-make this dish, I'd learn how to make filo dough or use spring roll (the kind that can be fried) wrapper.



Here are the ingredients:
1 flour tortilla
1 box of uni (sea urchin roe available in Japanese grocery stores)
1 box of ikura (salmon eggs available in Japanese grocery stores, I prefer the saltiness of the salmon eggs because it matches better w/ the sweetness of the uni and having the salmon eggs burst in your mouth is a good compliment to the soft texture of uni)
1 bunch of micro greens
1 teaspoon of seaweed flakes
Japanese salad dressing (you can buy off the shelf or make your own as follows: 1 TBS white soy sauce, 1 TBS bonito flavored soy sauce, a bit of wasabi, 1 TBS apple vinegar, 2 TBS mirin)

To put the dish together:

Cut the tortilla into appetizer size strips. Brush the tortilla with olive oil and grill until firm / crisp.

Toss the micro greens with the salad dressing and place it as the bed of the appetizer. Top with 2 pieces of uni and a dab of ikura. Sprinkle the plate w/ seaweed flakes and you're done.

Broiled Mentaiko Potato Slices With Truffle Dressing

Ingredients

· 2 red potato or russet potato

· ¼ cup Japanese mayonnaise

· 2 table spoons of masago

· ½ teaspoon of fresh lime juice.

· Handful of micro greens or radish sprouts

Drizzle of White truffle oil

Directions

Boil a pot of water, enough to cover the potatoes. Season the water well with salt and put the potatoes in the boiling water for 15 – 20 minutes (Depending on the size of the potato, cooking time will vary. Do not overcook the potato, otherwise it will be mushy and difficult to work with. The potato should be 85% cooked as they will cook further in the oven).

While the potato is cooking, mix together the Japanese mayonnaise, mentaiko, and lime juice. The mixture should a thick paste with the texture similar to soft cream cheese. If it’s too thick, add more mayonnaise, if it’s runny, add more masago. In a separate bowl, mix together the micro greens / radish sprouts and truffle oil.

Once the potato is cooked, place it in ice water until its cool enough to handle. If you’re using russet potatoes, peel the skin off as you’re working with it. If you’re using red potatoes, you can choose to keep the skin intact. Slice the potatoes into ¼ thick slices. Preheat the oven to broil at 450 degrees. Spread the mentaiko mixture on the potato slices using a butter knife. Place in oven for 2 -3 minutes until the tops are slightly browned. Remove from the oven and place the truffle radish mixture on top.

You might need to play around with the timing a bit, what you want is a nice crust on the surface and still have it soft inside; hence the high heat broil. Depending on your oven, you might want to rotate a minute or two into the cooking to prevent spots from burning.

Maguro Pizza

I've heard this recipe for a long time and I've always thought it was an Americanized version of someone trying to cook Japanese food until I tried it myself. I used to be a real purist when it came to Japanese food, but the ingredients combine very well. I usually don't eat maguro because it lacks taste, but it's very well presented in this dish.

Ingredients

· 1 pc flour tortilla (6” or 8”)

· Sushi grade maguro

· ¼ of a red onion

· 1 small handful of micro greens or radish sprouts.

· 1 teaspoon of mentaiko (spicy Pollack roe – available in Japanese grocery stores)

· 1 tablespoon of ponzu

· 4 tablespoons of Japanese mayonnaise

· 2 teaspoons of white truffle oil

Directions

Slice the maguro into paper thin slices and set aside. It might be helpful to slightly freeze the maguro so it’s firmer and easier to work with.

For the base of the maguro pizza sauce, mix the mentaiko, ponzu, and Japanese mayonnaise together and keep in the refrigerator.

Brush the flour tortilla with olive oil and grill on an open fire or gas grill. Grill the tortilla until it’s lightly brown and slightly firm. The texture of the tortilla should be crunchy. Over-grilling will cause the tortilla to crumble (because it's so crispy) when you cut it.

Once the tortilla is finished, use the mentaiko mayonnaise like a pizza sauce and spread on the tortilla. Lay slices of the maguro until the tortilla is covered. Next, place the thinly sliced red onions on the maguro. Mix white truffle oil with the micro greens / radish sprouts and spread across the top of the maguro pizza. Cut diagonally into 8 pieces and serve.